Hero Arts Hostess Hop 2014

This year I am even more excited to participate in our annual hop because I have gained even more respect and admiration for the people behind Hero Arts. Last week, I attended CHA in Anaheim, CA and was fortunate to meet some of my stamping idols. You know, without realizing it, when you blog, and you create, and you share, over the years, you just naturally form these connections and friendships. For me, the core of my "stamping career" has always always been Hero Arts. One of the highlight of the trip was meeting Aaron, the owner of Hero Arts, Lisa Spangler and Jennifer McGuire. Aaron was just wonderful! I really appreciated him taking so much time to give us advice and encouragement. He is truly an inspiration and have really changed the lives of many people. And what can I say about Lisa and Jenn? They are both amazing and have always been solid supporters of me and Mama Elephant. I love them to pieces. :)

Here's a picture our friend Lynn captured of us chatting with Aaron and Lisa, and you can see Jenn too! I'm in the polka dots. :P

Thank you Aaron, Lisa, and Jennifer for all your support and guidance.

And so it goes without saying that I am happy to reunite with all my beautiful Hero Hostesses today to show you some brand new stamps from the newest 2014 catalog! You should've found your way here from my cutie pie friend Kathy Racoosin's blog.

I made two cards for today's hop focusing on gold glitter. I think I've been on a gold rush for awhile now, I have found that glitter is the perfect companion to CAS cards. It makes everything so much better!

Here's my first card using stamps using CL736 For Your Kindness. I stamped the image then drew in shading myself with a thin Micron pen. I drew in diagonal lines and it seems to make the stamp pop. I also did some light shading with a grey Copic marker (C1), just for some added dimension.



The glitter circles were punched with a 5/8" circle punch from gold glitter cardstock. I just adhered the glitter circles onto my card base in a random diagonal-ish pattern. The stamped image was cut out and popped up with 3d foam.

Here's my second card using CL749 Looks Good. I love the fun, trendy camera images in this set. They're really cute with a whimsical hand drawn feel. I stamped the mini polaroid stamp 6 times and cut them out. I did some light shading again with a grey Copic marker and used a different color for the polaroid's "indicator light". 

To create the glitter diagonal border, I started off with a full size glitter 4x5.25 cardstock. I rotated it about 45 degrees and cut them into 1/2" increment strips using the ruler grids on my trimmer to guide me along and keep me straight and aligned.

Thanks for stopping by today, the next stop is Tiffany Ervin!